Despite long being a multilingual country, most records used in Scottish research are in English, with older ones in the closely related Scots language. They may, however, be difficult to read because of unique Scottish words, Latin words, or different handwriting styles.

Occasionally records will also contain Gaelic, often written in English phonetics. In the medieval documents about Orkney and Shetland, you may also encounter Norn, an early form of Norwegian.

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Scottish Gaelic

Gaelic (Gaidhlig) is a member of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic language of Scotland. It is closely related to Irish and Manx, and more distantly to Welsh, Cornish and Breton.

The Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005 gives some degree of recognition to Scotland's Celtic language. However, unlike Welsh, Scottish Gaelic has been written down far less frequently, and is not taught in many schools. The language is generally associated with the Highlands, but was historically spoken in most of the Lowlands as well. Many Lowland surnames and areas have Gaelic derivations, e.g. Dundee, Stranraer etc. It was not spoken in Orkney and Shetland

Scottish Gaelic gives rise to many Scottish surnames, including any beginning with Mac or Mc, as well as names such as Campbell, Dewar, Menzies etc. Some of these were written down in English phonetics, e.g. MacDonald or McWhannel for MacDhomhnaill and/or were later translated e.g. Smith can translate Mac a' Ghobhainn, which is also anglicized as Gow or MacGowan. The old Scottish Gaelic naming system is extremely complex, and exists mainly in oral tradition.

Many personal names such as Iain (John), Malcolm, Duncan, Fiona and Morag all ultimately derive from the language too. There are other, traditional, Gaelic names which have no direct equivalents in English: Oighrig, which is normally rendered as Euphemia (Effie) or Henrietta (Etta) (formerly also as Henny or even as Harriet), or, Diorbhal, which is "matched" with Dorothy, simply on the basis of a certain similarity in spelling; Gormul, for which there is nothing similar in English, and it is rendered as 'Gormelia' or even 'Dorothy'; Beathag, which is "matched" with Becky (> Rebecca) and even Betsy, or Sophie.

The most common class of Gaelic surnames are, of course, those beginning with mac (Gaelic for son), such as MacGillEathain (MacLean). The female form is nic (Gaelic for daughter), so Catherine MacPhee is properly called in Gaelic, Caitrìona Nic a' Phì. [Strictly, "nic" is a contraction of the Gaelic phrase "nighean mhic", meaning "daughter of the son", thus Nic Dhomhnuill, really means "daughter of MacDonald" rather than "daughter of Donald".] Although there is a common misconception that "mac" means "son of", the "of" part actually comes from the genitive form of the patronymic that follows the prefix "Mac", e.g., in the case of MacNéill, Néill (of Neil) is the genitive form of Niall (Neil).

Alphabet and pronunciation

Though the Scottish Gaelic and English alphabets are very similar, each has some letters not used in the other. The letters j, k, q, v, w, y, x and z are not used in the Gaelic language except in some 'adopted' words. Gaelic also uses the grave accent above vowels, and until recently used the acute accent over some of them as well.

Spelling is similar to Irish, although some combinations such as "ae" and "bhf" will not be found in modern Scottish Gaelic. Older documents will use a spelling more similar to Irish, or are often in English phonetics.

As an example of how different Gaelic spelling is from English, the Lord's Prayer is reproduced here:

Ar n-Athair a tha air nèamh, Gu naomhaichear d'ainm.

Thigeadh do rìoghachd. Dèanar do thoil air an talamh, mar a nithear air nèamh.

Scots language

The Scots language is the language of the Scottish Lowlands, Caithness, and the Northern Isles (Orkney and Shetland). It is closely related to standard English, and there is a long running, heated debate as to whether it is a dialect or a language in its own right. It is not to be confused with Gaelic, although there has been some mutual influence.

The Scots language goes by many different names. It is often called Broad/Braid Scots or Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Gaelic. In the north east especially, it is often referred to as Doric. In Buchan, it is known as the Claik, and in Glasgow as the Patter. In older writings it is often referred to as Scottis, or as Scotch, although the term "Scotch" is not liked by many Scots today.

Many Scots words can be found in older documents, as it was written down more frequently than Gaelic. It is common for Scots to use the dimunitive, e.g. James frequently becomes Jamie, Robert becomes Rab or Rabbie etc. This is done more often than in standard English and is not frowned upon.

Scots has no legal status, and there are no reliable figures for how many people speak it. However, it is much more common to hear it in Scotland than Gaelic. Due to its similarity with English, there is considerable debate as to what constitutes Scots as well.

Spelling is not standardized now, and is often influenced by English. A notable difference from standard English is the guttural (velar fricative) in which the likes of "loch" and "nicht" would be pronounced as in German, rather than as "lock" or "nickt".

Latin

Some Scottish records may contain Latin. Knowing some Latin will help you read these records. For help with Latin words, see the Latin Genealogical Word List (34077).

There are also a handful of Latin terms only used in Scotland.

Handwriting

Handwriting styles have changed over time. In early records, the handwriting is quite different from what it is today. Visit Scotland Handwriting in Research Topics.

Abbreviations

Abbreviations are common in early handwriting. When recorders left letters out of a word, they indicated the fact by using various marks, such as a period, a colon, a tail on the last letter of the word, a curvy line over the word, or a raised letter at the end of the word. Abbreviations can be indicated in many ways, and it is important to study individual writers to see how they made abbreviations.

In Scottish church records, ministers often used only the first letter of the words, for example:

L.S. = lawful son

L.D. = lawful daughter

N.S. = natural son

N.D. = natural daughter

ch. = child

Ch. N. = child named

N. = named

Instead of writing the words father, mother, witness, son, or daughter, the minister may have used f, m, w, s, or other letters.

Dates

Dates, instead of being numerical, are sometimes referred to by the name of the feast day or by one of the terms listed below:

Term

Meaning

current, instant

Same month (Sometimes used to mean "within 30 days" or a month.)

proximo

next month

ultimo

last month

penultimate day, penult day

the day before the last day of the month

jajvii, jmjvii, mvii

indicates the century, such as 1700s

eodem tempore, eod tempore

at the same time (the same date)

eodem die, eod die, E.D.

the same day

Gods die

God’s day, the Sabbath

Feb 1st Sabbath

Exact day of month not stated

Feb 2nd Sabbath

Event took place in Feb on the 1st, 2nd, or (whatever) Sabbath in the month

Language resources

Scottish Dictionaries

To find definitions for other words that are unfamiliar to you, you can use one of several Scottish dictionaries:

Craigie, Sir William A. A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue, from the Twelfth Century to the End of the Seventeenth. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press, 1937-. (Family History Librarybook 403.41 Sco87c.)